Essays
Death to Death: June turn-out could help
Published on May 16th, 2013
0 comments By David Swanson Most of the world's governments no longer use the death penalty. Among wealthy nations there is one exception remaining. The United States is among the top five killers in the world...
Rich and smiling: New study says money does buy happiness
Published on May 9th, 2013
9 comments "I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, honey, rich is better," the vaudevillian Sophie Tucker quipped. Tucker's witticism will not strike most of us as controversial. Yet some really smart...
Lefties take aim: How locavores are the new gun nuts
Published on May 2nd, 2013
8 comments By Andrew Potter We all know the typical face of right-wing gun nuttery, from the local camo-clad yahoos in a pickup with a gun rack and jacklights all the way to Wayne LaPierre of the NRA, who...
Marathon mayhem: Training didn't include running for their lives
Published on Apr 25th, 2013
0 comments We had all prepared for this day, but we had not prepared for this scenario: The panic of frantically attempting to count heads, fearing anyone unaccounted for at that moment might well be dead, or...
Seeking comfort: When words fail, let nature do the talking
Published on Apr 25th, 2013
0 comments By BettyJoyce NashLast Friday, my friend and I talked and talked. Her words couldn't drown the chop-chop of the Black Hawks above her roof. We'd toss lines to each other, sometimes simultaneously,...
What the frack? What happens in West Virginia can happen here
Published on Apr 18th, 2013
12 comments I have a furnace that runs on natural gas, a gas stove, a gas dryer, and a gas hot water heater. I am happy with these, especially the stove. Gas is great for cooking. It never occurred to me,...
Roger and me: Reflections on a kindred spirit
Published on Apr 11th, 2013
0 comments By Carroll TrainumSpifclown1@yahoo.com Our shared passion for film brought Roger Ebert and me together, first on his TV movie review shows, and then throughout our 10 years of interactions through...
Flash of insight: Get used to no power
Published on Apr 4th, 2013
30 comments Silent flashes lit up the sky in fast succession, like paparazzi, for a good two minutes. The night was dark, and our power had clicked off about a half hour earlier. I stood at our bedroom window,...
Jeepers peepers! Frogs are canaries in a coal mine
Published on Mar 28th, 2013
0 comments By Amy Mathews AmosThe snow had melted, the sun was shining and the river beckoned, so I took a long walk by the water this weekend. Being outside was satisfying enough, but I got an unexpected treat...
Red brain, blue brain: Does political affiliation reflect intelligence?
Published on Mar 21st, 2013
65 comments By Ronald Bailey People use reason to convince themselves, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, that their side is right and the other side is wrong. That's the conclusion of a new study...
Afton's allure: A commuter's rocky affair
Published on Mar 14th, 2013
1 comments By Hilary Holladay I’m in the waning months of a rocky relationship. It’s been almost three years now, and though I’ve taken breaks every Christmas and every summer, I’m not able to call it quits...
Nowhere to hide: The brave new world of domestic drones
Published on Mar 7th, 2013
13 comments In the good old days, if you wanted to spy on someone or cause them harm, you pretty much had to do it up close and personal. You could stand outside someone’s house and peek through the windows,...
A Virginia DUI story: Know your rights
Published on Mar 4th, 2013
28 comments By André HakesCHAPTER ONE: It's 11:00pm and you're on your way back from dinner. You are pulled over for a check point, speeding, or a taillight out. The officer walks up to your car shining the...
Children: Adorable environmental disasters
Published on Feb 21st, 2013
53 comments By Jeff Feldman           On March 25, 2012 my wife Kristin and I made a lifestyle choice, which, by all accounts, will have the most egregious...
Self-reflection: Are you a workplace bully?
Published on Feb 14th, 2013
22 comments By Hilary HolladayOver the past five years, I’ve given a lot of thought to workplace bullying. I moved 650 miles, back home to Virginia, to escape a bully at my old job. I have friends who have been...
Up and armed: A day at the gun show
Published on Feb 7th, 2013
23 comments By Wick Hunt I anticipate that a trip to the Fishersville Gun and Knife show on January 27 at the Augusta Expo will be a visual, and therefore photographic, cornucopia so I arrive armed with my Nikon...
Road to nowhere: Western Bypass must be stopped
Published on Feb 6th, 2013
15 comments By James E. Rich The General Assembly is currently considering proposals to raise significant new revenues for transportation in the Commonwealth. Many hardworking Virginians live paycheck to...
Senator Henry Marsh's big day
Published on Jan 31st, 2013
6 comments Blogger Waldo Jaquith was at the Virginia State Capitol on Monday, January 21, when Republican senators passed a controversial redistricting bill. This is his account of the day. Today was a big day...
Surgeon's decree: Gun control a public health issue
Published on Jan 24th, 2013
205 comments By Sara K. Rasmussen Last month, our country endured an unspeakable horror when elementary school students in Newtown, Connecticut, became the victims of one of the most heinous gun rampages that our...
Road to ruin: Cutting gas tax a disastrous plan
Published on Jan 18th, 2013
11 comments The first rule of holes is when you find yourself in one, quit digging. Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell’s response to flagging revenues for transportation, however, is to grab a jack hammer. His...
View, interrupted: It's unneighborly to start a row
Published on Jan 10th, 2013
59 comments Oh, you should have seen me. It was a double-take right out of vaudeville. (Had I been drinking from my water bottle, I guarantee it would have been a spit-take.) As I skidded to a flailing stop on...
Somewhere in America
Published on Dec 28th, 2012
14 comments By Hilary Holladay Somewhere in America, as I write this, you sit hunched over a laptop in your family’s basement planning a rampage. You are male and young—eighteen, nineteen, maybe twenty. You are...
Skipping town: Where should I put all my stuff?
Published on Dec 20th, 2012
18 comments By Lucy Sankey Russell It is hard to leave Charlottesville after living here with my family for over 18 years.  Friends and teachers, colleagues and classmates, neighbors and students, doctors...
Old bizes: The other people of the year
Published on Dec 11th, 2012
2 comments It would be easy to say that Monticello is the oldest business in town. Easy, but wrong if continuous operation counts.  From 1831-1923, the place was more of a private dwelling than it was...
Let there be light: How I conquered the dark days
Published on Dec 3rd, 2012
11 comments Can money buy happiness, a sense of self-worth, optimism? I was counting on it, looking for happiness in a box, the one that had just landed on my back porch. It was late November, and my joie de...
Seeking mom: In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy
Published on Nov 28th, 2012
5 comments By Cora Schenberg Every day for two weeks following Hurricane Sandy, I try and fail to get a call through to my eighty-two-year-old mother, who lives on Long Island with her eighty-four-year old...
Survey says: What if money can buy happiness?
Published on Nov 15th, 2012
12 comments "Everybody wants more cash!" declares Capital One bankcard TV pitchman Jimmy Fallon. Except for the cute baby, that is, who throws Cheerios at Fallon when he offers 50 percent more cash back. Perhaps...
Sullivan's extension: And other things out of Dragas' control
Published on Nov 13th, 2012
75 comments After a student protest of its Board of Visitors was quashed last week, people across America are wondering what the heck is wrong with the University of Virginia. Related: Transparency now:...
Flex time: Raise (and lower) the speed limits
Published on Nov 5th, 2012
6 comments By Greg Beato In the wide open plains of central Texas, a new addition to State Highway 130 has just opened for business with a compelling marketing hook: Its speed limit of 85 MPH is the highest in...
Photo attachment: Have memories slipped away with pictures?
Published on Nov 1st, 2012
12 comments I’ve been dreading the phone call. It came this morning. Not good news. I have to keep reminding myself: Nobody has a tumor. Nobody’s sick. There’s no funeral to attend.And still, I want to howl. I...